The Ghost
by RandomSpaceman
Summary: Set between S3Ep9 and S3Ep10 of RTTE (After the baby Death Song). The riders follow a tip from Trader Johan to the city of Heimdall's Peak. When things don't go as planned, they find themselves stuck in a gang war and in the visor of an ancient assassin. M for language, blood and killing.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Alright guys, let's go!" Hiccup called out. Six dragons soared into the air, a certain night fury leading the pack.

"Wait, where are we going again?"

Hiccup sighed. "Are you definitely listening this time, Tuffnut?"

"Yeah sure! I'll have you know, I'm a professional listener! My listening is unrivaled by…"

"Trader Johan gave us a contact, who knows about a dragon hunter base. We find this informant and then rescue the dragons in the base. Johan ensured us that his source wasn't faulty. Got it?" Hiccup glanced over to the Zippleback, waiting for an answer. But he never got one.

"Ruffnut, could you please wake up your brother." Hiccup said monotone. The blonde girl's face brightened up, but then formed to an evil grin, as she head-butted her brother out of his dreams.

"Hiccup" Heather said, as she caught up to the leader "did Johan mention his contact's name by any chance? I got around a lot, so I might have heard of him."

"Sorry, he didn't, but as I said, Johan ensured that the source wasn't bad and I believe him."

The Trip was a lot longer than Hiccup initially thought, so they arrived at dusk. "Alright gang, we'll use the darkness to land our dragons and then go to the village by foot."

Johan's tip lead the group to an island called Heimdall's Peak. It was impressive to say the least and had a large town built into the mountains. But different to other towns, this one was brightly illuminated by seemingly thousands of fires, outside and especially inside the mountain. People were everywhere and the markets were up and running, even at night.

"Welcome to Heimdall's Peak." Hiccup told the group as they circled high over the island.

"Amazing!" "Wow!" "Incredible!" the dragon riders couldn't believe their eyes. Well all except one.

"It's nice." Heather remarked.

"NICE!? It's a city in fire! A city that never sleeps, in a sense!" Astrid yelled, never taking her eyes off the fires.

"I worked here for two months. At first its all exciting and everything, but after a while it looses its charm. The constant light gets really tiring and don't even get me started on night shifts."

"Way to go to kill the mood." Tuffnut murmured.

After an hour the dragon riders found a landing spot and set off to town to find the informant. "Okay, so this guy is supposed to meet us in an Inn called the Beehive. Call out if you see it." Hiccup informed the rest as they made their way to the entrance.

"HALT! You are about to enter Heimdall's Peak! Who are you and what are you here for!" One of the brute guards at the archway yelled.

"Uhm… Hello! We are merely young travellers and we would like to visit the markets." Hiccup told him as the guard's eyes scanned him from head to toe.

"And how did you get here? We didn't see a ship enter the harbour…" The brute asked as he stared suspiciously into Hiccup's eyes.

"Oh, heh, you know, the prices for a dock in the harbour are pretty high, out of our price range, so we, errr, landed on the other side of the island and asked an old fisherman for a temporary docking place." Hiccup lied.

The guard looked at him questionably. "Oh really? Old Hugo gave you a docking place? The grandpa who we threw out of the city because he hated everybody? Sure." Hiccup swallowed hard. He was in a really tight spot. But suddenly the guard started laughing.

"Oh! Now I get it! Ha! You 'asked' him for a docking place! Heh! That old root deserves it! Get in the city! Man, I love you guys!"

The dragon riders looked at each other confused, but quickly entered the city, before the guard changed his mind.

Finding the Beehive wasn't hard. There was loud music, countless fires and even more people. It truly was a beehive in every aspect. "Okay, gang. Stay together! We need to get to the barkeeper!" Hiccup yelled through the masses.

"What!? I can't hear a thing, Hiccup!" Astrid yelled back. Hiccup rolled his eyes, grabbed her hand and motioned her to do the same with the rest. After two minutes the seven of them finally got to the counter, where thankfully the music was a bit quieter.

"Welcome to my Bar, kids! I'm Lydia, but you can call me the Queen bee! Everyone else does. What can I get you?" The woman behind the bar was middle aged, yet very attractive and was cleaning wooden cups. Suddenly her eyes fixated on Heather. "Oh, hello again, miss berserker! How are we?" She leaned over the counter and gave Heather a hug, which the latter gladly returned.

"I'm great! How about you?"

Astrid interrupted the scene. "Wait, you know her, Heather?"

Heather just giggled. "I told you I worked in Heimdall's Peak for a while. And this is the shop I worked in!"

Fishlegs looked at her bewildered. "You worked as a servant!?"

The Queen bee grinned. "She was the bouncer." A synchronous 'Oh' went through the ranks.

"So what brings you and your friends here, maiden?"

"We were supposed to meet someone here. Trader Johan sends his regards." Hiccup answered. The Queen bee nodded knowingly and pointed towards the stairs, which lead to the private rooms. "Second room to the right."

Hiccup thanked her and the troop made their way to the informant. Getting to the stairs was trickier than one might have thought, but they managed to get through eventually. They collected in front of the door and opened it.

"Holy Shit!" Hiccup yelled and jumped back. Astrid's face paled immediately "Oh no. This is bad. This is really bad."

Inside was the informant, but he had an empty glare in his eyes, a stab wound in his back and was laying in a puddle of his own blood.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"What do we do now hiccup? Our informant is dead! And he was the only one with the information." Astrid stated, as she was pacing through the hallway.

Hiccup was just as much on the edge as everyone else. "Nnnrgh… AAARGH! I don't know! Let me think for a bit."

After a few minutes Hiccup spoke up again. "Alright. How about we find out who killed this guy. The killer probably was someone associated to the dragon hunters. They found out about the meeting and they killed him. Maybe someone in the club saw something suspicious. Heather?" Heather perked up and listened. "You ask Queen bee if she saw anything. You know more about this city than any of us, so you'll be leading the investigation. The rest of us spread out and ask the patrons if they saw anything. Got it?"

Astrid strolled around for a while in search for someone who was sober enough to have any idea of what was going on. The worst part was all the drunk guys trying to talk to her.

"H… Heeey, cutieee… Co… come here… oftn?" A drunken man at the bar interrupted her attempt to get to the less crowded left side of the bar. She smacked his face to the counter and continued walking. Well, continued was a strong word, because she almost immediately got surrounded by a group of guards.

"Do you even know who this is girlie?" one of the guards asked. The whole room was suddenly quiet.

"Uhhmm, someone important, I guess? Heh, heh…" Astrid helplessly looked for a way out of the situation or anybody who could help her out.

The guard started smiling devilishly. "Damn right you are and you better apologize to him. The special way." Astrid gulped hard. She really didn't want to know what the 'special way' was, although she had suspicions.

"Get the hell out of here Bullface!" The guard's face paled immediately.

A second guard grabbed the drunk man and heaved him onto his shoulder "Boss! We gotta go! She's back!"

A few seconds later the guards were running outside, carrying their boss. Astrid glared bewildered, until she saw Heather grinning beside her. "I was a pretty good bouncer, if I do say so myself." "Still are, apparently" Astrid agreed. "Who was this guy anyway?"

"Bullface?" Heather asked.

"No, the drunk boss."

"Oh, that would be the baron. In a big city like this, there is bound to be organised crime. And he is one of the crime bosses. The other two are Neddy Black Eye and Viper Mary."

The bar had returned to normal, and talking was getting tricky again.

"Seems like Crime is quite a bit of a problem here" Astrid remarked. Heather just nodded. "So, did you find out anything?"

"I was trying to find a sober person to ask, but I haven't had much success"

Heather grinned. "You don't have to ask the sober. The drunks are the ones that see the most. The sober ones are probably here for business and not talking. Anyways, I have a lead, so we should get the others together." Astrid nodded and went off to find Hiccup. She found him in a deep discussion with a slightly drunken man.

"Uh, Hiccup? Heather found something, we should go."

"Hang on, this guy knows so much about swords, it's amazing! I could use some of his ideas for my own sword, you know, Inferno? Just give me a couple more moments." Hiccup stated and turned back to the man.

"Hiccup…"

"Please, Astrid, I'll be here, don't worry. The twins and Snotlout are probably harder to find." Astrid wanted to smack his face to the table, like that baron guy's face, but she knew that he was probably right. So she set out to find the rest of the gang.

"YOU GUYS! You guys… are the b… best! I like you! Sooooo much." Astrid rolled her eyes as she saw Snotlout standing on a table. "How can someone get drunk in twenty minutes?" she asked herself. Then she noticed another two familiar figures laying in the corner, past out drunk.

"Snotlout, get off the table. We need to go." She told him, after found her way through the crowd around table.

"NO! This is my new home! Screw dra… uhmmm, the…edge thing! I wanna stay here!" Snotlout protested. Astrid rolled her eyes and grabbed his leg. Snotlout's head whacked on the table as he tipped over and fell unconscious.

"Need a hand?" Astrid heard behind her. She turned around to see Heather dragging the twins behind her. "Thanks. Hiccup is over there, talking to some guy about swords." Heather looked at her questionably. "Swords? Isn't he rather the thinking and talking type?" Astrid shrugged. "He's really into the new flaming one, so I guess he's becoming a swords guy. Still prefer an axe myself."

"First of all, I'm not a sword guy, I'm an invention guy and secondly, the 'new flaming one' is called Inferno." Hiccup said as he approached the girls.

"What happened to your friend, and didn't you say you'd change the name?" Astrid asked grinning.

Hiccup scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, well the guy fell asleep shortly after you showed up and since It's my sword, I'm naming it. And I like Inferno. Do you need any help?" Heather nodded and gave Tuffnut to Hiccup. As they walked out of the Beehive, they were stopped once more by the Queen bee.

"I just wanted to say, watch yourself. I'd like to see your face again, Heather, but not on a burial ship. Okay?" She looked very worried, which worried Astrid and Hiccup even more.

"Sure. I've always got Windshear and the dragon riders at my back, and they've taken down a lot bigger things."

"Still. You know Windshear can't come into the city and this is a very dangerous city. Oh well, off with you then. Until next time." The Queen bee stated and gave Heather a hug.

As the woman went back to her counter, Hiccup and Astrid stared at Heather. "What?"

"She knows about Windshear?" Hiccup asked. "That's what you're worried about!?" Astrid interrupted. "How about the fact that the woman with probably the most knowledge about this city is afraid that we might die!"

"Calm down, calm down. She's just a bit overprotective, nothing else." Heather tried.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Heather. She put a 17 year old girl in charge as the bouncer in a city overflowing with gangs, so I don't think she's overprotective. What's going on?"

Heather sighed. "The Queen bee didn't see anything. In fact, that's exactly what concernes her. She has a security system installed in the door, which prevents any party guests from entering the upper rooms. She can deactivate it remotely from her counter, but she told me, that she never left the counter between the moment the informant went upstairs and the time we arrived, so no one could have gone upstairs without triggering the alarm."

Hiccup was deep in thought. "What about the windows?"

"Also secured. In fact, she specifically designed the upper floor so no one could enter. The upper floor houses both the private chambers as well as the storage room, so she really doesn't like guests up there."

Astrid looked worried. "So what you're telling us, is that someone was able to bypass the security system, kill our informant and leave through the security system without anyone noticing."

"Exactly."

"Maybe he was there before the informant went up, and is still there. That would explain why no alarms were triggered." Hiccup guessed, but was immediately proven wrong.

"That's what the Queen bee and I thought as well, so I checked the entire upper floor again. Nothing." Heather said. "And that brings us to why the Queen bee was so worried. There was an entity in this city called the Ghost, an assassin for hire. About two hundred years ago, it was the most feared thing in the whole archipelago, rivaling a screaming death that terrorised this the land at the same time."

Hiccup looked at Heather questionably. "Why are you referring to it as an entity, rather than a person?"

Heather huffed. "Because nobody knows if it even WAS a person. For all we know it could have been a Gronckle."

"Why are you so sure that the Ghost is responsible for our Informant? As you said, he or it or whatever, was last active two hundred years ago." Astrid asked.

"While I was up there, looking for the murderer, I also checked out the Informant, or rather the stab wound in his back. It was the classic Ghost stab wound. One wound as a whole, but two channels into the body. One large and deep, piercing the heart, one small and short, into the spine. A precision strike, one that killed quite a few important people back in the day, and could only originate from one source." Heather explained.

Hiccup looked worried. "So, our killer is an ancient assassin, who was never identified and can apparently outlast centuries. That brings us almost back to square one."

"Not entirely." Fishlegs interfered. "Heather, was the deeper wound above the shorter one?"

"Yes, why?" Heather replied.

"Because that picture in my head is starting to look awfully familiar."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Fishlegs took his out his dragon cards and started shuffling. "Where is it, where is it… here… long… but not long enough… that's why the second wound is there… together as one wound with two channels… long enough. I was right." Fishlegs pulled a card out of his deck and held it in front of the others.

"A speed stinger?" Hiccup asked.

Fishlegs' face brightened up. "Exactly! The tail of a speed stinger has a long top barb and a short lower one. Now, normally speed stingers only pierce the skin with the long barb to inject the paralyzing venom, but this one seems to have been strong enough to stab the entire tail into the Informant's back. That's why the second, smaller barb is creating a wound channel of its own."

Astrid took the card out of Fishlegs' hand and inspected it. "Can a speed stinger be strong enough to actually stab that deep?"

Fishlegs frowned. "Well, not an average Stinger. But dragons, just like humans, can be stronger or weaker. Also, there is the possibility that someone used a Speed Stinger tailbone as a weapon, which would create the same wound."

Hiccup clapped in his hands to get everyone's attention. Well, everyone except Snotlout and the Twins. "So we have three leads. The Ghost legend, the speed stinger and the speed stinger knife. That's a whole lot more than we had before, but I don't think well be getting any further today, so I'd say we camp out for the night and continue tomorrow. Sound good?"

"No, I have a better Idea." Heather said grinning.

Five minutes later they were standing in the entrance of a resting place called the Gronckle's fire.

A slim man with a high-pitched voice greeted them. "Oh, hello, miss Heather! Always nice to see a friendly face these days! Here for a room? Or maybe more, for your friends?"

"Do you know everyone here?" Fishlegs asked. Heather just shrugged.

"Mister Graystone, nice to see you again, and yes. Although give these three the cellar room. I don't think they'll mind." Heather told the man and motioned to Snotlout and the twins. He nodded and asked them for ten silver coins, which Hiccup handed over. Mister Graystone led the four of them to their rooms and handed out the keys.

"We only have double rooms left, so you'll have to split up. I hope that's not too big of a problem?" Heather shook her head, immediately grabbed a key and before Astrid could react, ripped Fishlegs into her room, leaving Astrid and Hiccup alone. Astrid glared deviously at the now closed door, because she knew exactly what Heather was doing.

"Uhm, well, it seems like we are taking a room together then?" Hiccup asked sheepishly. Astrid sighed. "Seems like it." Hiccup took the key out of the keeper's hand and unlocked the door.

"The walls are pretty sound proof by the way, so don't worry." Mister Graystone said grinning, as he walked back downstairs to greet the next customers. Astrid and Hiccup looked at each other, but immediately turned away again, their cheeks burning red.

It was silent for over half a minute until Hiccup spoke up again. "Uhm, well, ahem… So, what now? Its pretty late, but we could still do something, if you want."

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup scratched his forehead. "Well, since were hunting a master of shadows, we could start making a collection of all we know and get a visual picture of how our enemy works. Apparently connecting the whole thing with some yarn helps the brain understand it better. Or at least that's what I read in a book."

Astrid cocked an eyebrow. "You want to turn this room into a spider-web?" Hiccup shrugged. "More or less."

After fifteen minutes, a portion of the wall was filled with notes, pins and some yarn.

"Aaand… how should that help?" Astrid asked as she looked at the grand scheme. Hiccup cleared his throat. "Well. Here we have the stab wound with to lines leading to both the Speed stinger and the Speed stinger tail-knife. The speed stinger can survive almost anywhere, but they are known to hunt often and in packs. So, if Speed stingers were on this island, the locals would probably know by now, this leaves two possibilities. Back to the tail-knife-thing OR An entirely new species. Another possibility, someone trained a Speed stinger."

"Wow, not bad…" Astrid responded seemingly impressed and sat down on the bed. "We surely have the esthetics down for out investigation." Hiccup huffed. "Well, thank you, milady. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Oh really? As far as I remember, all I did was stand next to you and do nothing, while you went on a yarn killing spree."

Hiccup shook his head smiling and sat down on the other side of the bed. "It's already pretty late and we should really get some sleep. I'd like to be well rested for whatever happens tomorrow."

"Yeah, me too." Astrid stated, as she started unbuckling her armour.

After ten minutes, Astrid was already under the blanket, while Hiccup was still tearing off piece after piece of his flight suit. "You're really taking your merry time, aren't you…" Astrid joked.

"It's a flight suit with countless features and gadgets. It's bound to take a bit longer. Plus, you don't have to take off your entire leg." Hiccup defended himself.

"Well then hurry up."

"Why so impatient? Eager to have a heater beside you or something?"

Astrid's cheeks burned. "NO. I don't need a heater. I'm…I'm… warm."

"That's good, because I'm technically colder than you, since my missing leg means a lot less blood in my body."

Thankfully for Astrid, Hiccup wasn't Heather. He had the ability to get her out of an embarrassing situation with the power of technical talk. Heather would've probably pressured her into an even more embarrassing situation.

Hiccup finally got rid of all his gear and joined Astrid in bed.

"Happy now?"

Yes, she was happy, but her hugging made words unnecessary. Sleeping next to each other wasn't weird anymore, since camping in the wild made for some quite interesting situations. But sleeping in each others arms, that didn't happen all too often. And Hiccup savoured every moment of it.

"Hey, are you still awake?" Astrid whispered into the void. "Yeah."

"Why?"

Hiccup sighed. "The Ghost is giving me too much to think about."

"Are you scared?" Astrid's question was short, but it hit like a gronckle. Because in her voice Hiccup could hear that she was scared herself. She'd never admit it of course, but he knew her too well. And honestly, he was scared as well. An ancient assassin who can basically become the shadows, can break into any building and can kill any person. It was nightmare fuel, especially considering that they were now trying to hunt that thing.

"Don't worry." Hiccup answered and held Astrid a bit closer.

"Thanks." Astrid stated and buried her head into Hiccups shoulder. After another few minutes the two of them faded into a deep sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you all for reading! I never really planned this to be a long story, but now I got myself tangled in too many ideas... Guess, there will be quite a few more chapters.

Anyways, I just wanted to inform anyone following the story that there probably won't be any updates over Christmas and New Year (You know the drill, touring from one dinner to the next to see people you haven't seen in at least a year, and you don't really know what the hell to say to them except 'Hello, how are you'). Also, to all those M rated killing fans thinking 'there has been one death by now, what is this crap?' don't worry, I got you covered in the next chapter.

Enough talking, Chapter 4, commence.

* * *

Chapter 4

Astrid woke up first. Still trapped in Hiccups arms, she decided to wait until he was awake.

"Morning, milady." Hiccup groaned as he came to his senses. "Ready to continue the case?"

Astrid yawned and nodded, while she sat up to put her gear back on. "Where do you think we should start? The Legend, the Speed stinger or the knife?" she asked.

"We'll probably split up. And try to get Snotlout and the twins away from any bars." Hiccup stated. Astrid nodded. "Then its probably best to split them up as well. So, who are the teams?"

Hiccup thought for a second. "I'll take Snotlout, you'll take the twins and Heather and Fishlegs go together."

"Why do we always have to take the annoying people!?" Astrid asked.

"Because, Heather knows the most about the city and Fishlegs knows the most about everything else. They'll make the most effective team, so they're job is to figure out what's behind the Ghost legend. It's probably our most important lead, so we need a competent team for that."

Astrid nodded. "Makes sense. And what about the other two leads?"

"We'll see about that with the rest."

After a while the whole group was gathered around a table in the entrance. Hiccup stood up to start.

"Okay so I've come up…" Hiccup was immediately interrupted by Snotlout. "Whoa. Not so loud please…"

Hiccup rolled his eyes and continued 'slightly' quieter. "As I wanted to say, I've come up with a plan. Our main lead is the Ghost. Fishlegs and Heather, you two combined have the most widespread knowledge, so you'll be trying to find out what's behind the Legend." The two grinned at each other and nodded. "In the meantime, the twins will go with Astrid and Snotlout will come with me. We'll split up in two teams and try to find any clues regarding the speed stinger or the speed stinger knife. Got it?"

Snotlout groaned a 'yes' and got up to go to the counter. "Mister, would you know any tricks against a minor Hangover?"

Mister Graystone poured a brown liquid into a cup and gave it to him. "Here you go. Something from very far away. Apparently called Caffi, or Cofi or something. Terribly bitter, but very effective. Tell me what you think!"

Snotlout thanked the man and gulped down the whole cup. "Not bad, but it feels like something is missing… milk, maybe… and you should probably serve it warm…" Mister Graystone nodded and wrote it down on a piece of paper. "I'll take it in consideration."

* * *

Shortly after, the group split up. Hiccup and Snotlout headed for the Docks, to talk to the traders. The first trader they found was a chubby man, probably from the same region as Johan, as evident from his clothing.

"Wonderful morning, isn't it? Can I interest you in some of my wares?" The large man said and presented some steel swords.

Hiccup shook his head. "No, thank you. We're looking for some information. Have you ever heard of Speed Stingers on this island, or the surrounding ones?"

The trader looked at him confused. "Speed Stingers? Speed Stingers don't come south so far. I'd go searching further north, if you're hunting them."

Hiccup shook his head. "Well, that's not really what we're trying to do. Would you know where we can buy speed stinger products, hide, bones and the such?"

"For that, I'd go to the Dragon Cauldron. They've got dragon product of all sorts. Apparently they get their stuff directly from the Dragon Hunters themselves."

Hiccup thanked the man and pulled Snotlout along, to find the shop. Getting from point A to point B in Heimdall's Peak was a pain. The city was at least three times as large as Berk and there you had your dragon to fly you around. After what seemed like an hour, the two of them finally got to the Dragon Cauldron.

"It's actually quite nice." Snotlout remarked, earning a bewildered look from Hiccup. "You know, besides the Dragon skulls around the entrance…"

Snotlout pushed open the door and entered, Hiccup following closely. The inside was even freakier than the outside. Bones, hide and Heads were everywhere, numerous mixtures were filled into bottles, most of them probably containing some amount of dragon blood.

"Welcome to my shop! What can I interest you for?" An old man said behind the counter. He was bald and was missing at least half of his teeth. Hiccup looked around a bit and searched for Speed Stinger products. Meanwhile Snotlout approached the old man.

"We're searching for Speed Stinger stuff." He said and inspected some Dragon Bone ornaments.

"Well, I think we have some venom somewhere, but that stuff is really hard to get your hands on. Aha here." The man took out a tiny bottle, filled with a clear liquid. "Pure Speed Stinger venom. Too much can kill someone, so use as little as possible, as the effect will still be the same. Except of course, if that is your intention."

Hiccup took the bottle out of the shopkeeper's hand and looked at it closely. "We were more interested in Speed Stinger Tailbones. As knives maybe. Do you know if someone sells stuff like that?"

The shopkeeper looked surprised. "A Tailbone? No Idea where you could get that. Speed Stingers are practically impossible to kill, even for professional Hunters. The Venom was gathered through a mannequin trap. It's a hollow mannequin with containers in it that you place in Speed Stinger territory. Occasionally a young one will think it's a threat and sting it, resulting the venom to be collected in the containers inside. Older ones are too smart to fall into traps. At least most of the time."

Hiccup sighed. He hoped that the others had more success and was about to leave the shop, but the old man held him back and spoke to him quietly but sincere. "If you're still interested in that knife, I know a man who knows a man. He can probably get you special deliveries like that, if you have the coin."

Finally, Hiccup had a lead. "Yes, still interested."

The old man took forth a box full of letters. He copied something from one of them onto a new paper and gave it to Hiccup. "Don't do anything stupid. These guys don't screw around."

Hiccup looked at the note. It was an address for a man named Nihil Black Eye.

* * *

Astrid wanted to beat up someone. She had been talking to numerous merchants and locals about Speed Stingers and she constantly lost track of the twins. This time she turned her back to them for not even five seconds, but she had list them again. "Ruff! Tuff! Get back here right now or I'll beat you to pulp as soon as I find you!"

Suddenly she heard a whispering behind a barn. She decided to check it out, since it had the possibility of being the twins.

"No, I told you, he's dead. The Queen bee was talking to some fat kid about it. I think the bouncer was there too, you know, the one from a few months back."

"But why the hell was he in the Beehive!? And who killed him?"

"Look, if you wanna tell the boss, do it. But I'm not taking my chances. All I've come up with so far is the Ghost."

"The Ghost? The two hundred year old legend? Are you serious?"

"I'm telling you! The stab wound, the location, everything fits! And I overheard a few of the baron's people talking about the legend. I think he might have hired him!"

"And how would the Baron hire the Ghost? It's a Legend, nothing more. They probably impersonated him, to scare us and the Snakes. And yes, I'm telling the boss, because you're too much of a wuss!"

Astrid had listened to the entire conversation and peeked around the corner to see who it was. She saw two brute men with identical bands around their upper arm. The logo on them resembled an eye. She concluded that they must be part of the Black Eye gang, since they obviously weren't on great terms with the Baron. Also, the Snakes were probably Viper Mary's gang and apparently, they weren't in that group either. But her most important clue, was that the dead informant was apparently part of this gang, which meant that they could have some more information on the circumstances of his death and maybe even on what he had to spill.

The two men ran off in different directions. Astrid was temped to follow one of them, but there were still two burdens in the back of her head. Two very annoying ones, that constantly got themselves into trouble and always disappeared at the worst of times.

* * *

It had been another twenty minutes of searching for Astrid when she decided to give up.

"Screw this!" she said to herself and walked back to the house, where she overheard the two gang members. She searched for clues to where either of them might have gone, or where the Black Eye headquarters might be.

"I wish I had Stormfly with me…" Astrid stated as she started walking in the direction, where one of the brutes ran off. Her tracking class dragon would have found both the brutes and the twins in under a minute, but sadly, this city wasn't to friendly towards dragons. She sighed and whacked a few bushes out of her face, which were crowding the path.

To her surprise, the bushes led her to an advantage point. Well, an inside-advantage point, since she could see most of the internal city from up here. It was like one massive cave inside the mountain with countless homes and stores and again, even more fires. She was basically standing in a huge hole in the wall, which she hadn't noticed when she was walking.

Astrid started walking down a narrow path deeper into the city. "Wow…" was all she was able to say.

She was suddenly halted by another brute man she never saw before.

"Do you like snakes, girlie!?" the man asked. Astrid just looked at him confused.

"I asked you a question! Answer quickly or I'll chop your head of right now!" the man said as he pulled an axe from his back.

Astrid suddenly got the message, when she saw the band on his arm with the Black Eye symbol on it.

"NO! No, I don't like snakes!" she bursted out. The man just grinned. "Smart answer. You don't seem familiar, so I'm gonna say this only once. The insides belong to the Black Eyes, remember that. You start acting weird, we kill ya. Got it!?"

Astrid nodded ferociously and quickly walked away. She was happy, since she more or less found the Black Eyes and since this was their territory, she could get some more information on them and the dead informant.


End file.
